*Blog Tour ~ Review, Giveaway and Excerpt ~ Slow Burn by Sam B. Morgan
Summary:
Detective Douglas Brody has only ever known the life of a cop. Raised strict but fair by his police chief father, he joined the academy right out of school, climbed the ranks hard and fast, and now works homicide for the City of Charleston. The job is his entire life. For years it’s kept him happy enough to minimize the side of him that craves what he believes is wrong. An accident on the job puts him on medical leave and everything in Brody’s world changes. He has to prove himself once more to be best cop in the department, all while dealing with Zack – his persistent, sexy, and out of the closet physical therapist.
Zack is tan skin, big grins, floppy hair and tackles his job with the same full-blown enthusiasm he does everything else. When the “patient from hell” is thrown his way by another PT who can’t handle him, Zack is committed to achieving the impossible. His new patient is a head strong and hot as hell homicide detective, who oozes as much resentment as he does sex appeal. Any involvement with a patient, especially a man who is so deep in the closet he can’t see light, is something Zack swore he’d never do. But Brody slowly proves too much to resist…
My Review:
My first book from Sam B. Morgan and it was fun. How could it not be when you have a detective who is in the closet (oh how I love my closet boys) and a laid back Physical Therapist who is out and toss in some attraction, the whole opposites attraction deal and some UST that pretty much fuels this story…
Detective Brody, detective for the City of Charleston, blew out his ACL on the job. Went by Brody, uncooperative, making no progress, all around pain-in-the-ass.
Detective Douglas Brody is hurt while working a case that is important and becomes personal to Brody; not one to just sit back and twiddle his thumbs he wants to get back on the job and he wants it now. After scaring off former Physical Therapists, he gets assigned to Zack who may look laid back at first glance but can certainly hold his own against the gruff and ornery detective. From first meeting these two fight their attraction, Zack knows that their personalities will crash and burn and of course Brody isn’t out unless it’s in a bathroom stall with a nameless guy on his knees… so how can this work?
It had to be men, and Brody hated himself for not being able to control. He hated that he was taught to hate himself and anyone like him before he’d ever understood who he was.
Um, yeah. How is this going to work with Brody in the closet but there is this whole UST thing happening between them? I hear beaches have a certain attraction…maybe? Hmm…well then. I liked how patient Zack was with Brody in the beginning. Even during their PT sessions he knew how to handle the man and get him to cooperate and that bubbles over into their non PT relationship. He realizes the Brody is in the closet and even though he has made promises to himself otherwise, he just can’t let what is between them get away. The patience and acceptance of what he was going through makes Zack almost a candidate for saint hood at times, though I did love how he would go toe to toe with Brody and call him out.
“I’m not playing mind tricks on you. I think you are doing a good job mind fucking yourself.”
“Fuck you!”
“You could if you weren’t such an asshole, punishing yourself for being gay and so damn deep in denial you can’t seen see straight much less be straight.”
Ouch Zack! But Brody, oh Brody my goodness. I did feel for the boy as I usually do with my boys in the closet. I understand the mentality of the “boys club” he has been a part of for so long and having the memory of his father wrapped up in with that as well. Not a fun place to be and it’s a fine line he has to walk. That line of being true to your self and wanting that acceptance, but at what cost?
God, he’d imagined this. Dreamed about it and then wanted to beat himself up for it. But how could this be wrong? Everything about it felt so right.
I liked the story line and the way the boys came together. The side, yeah it felt like a side story with the case Brody was on when he was injured didn’t hold much interest for me. I was hooked with the sexy times they boys had and was fine with that. I admit it. I have no shame.
Slow Burn was fun and light introduction into the writing of Sam B. Morgan. There were heavy issues in there but they didn’t weigh the story down. It was a standard boy meet boy, boy likes boy, boy pushes other boy away, and they hit a few bumps in the road as they find their way back to one another story, just as a good contemporary romance should be. Was this book predictable? Sure it was. Did that take away form it being a fun read? Not one bit. Will I read more from this author? Of course and I have her first book loaded and ready to go.
Rating 3.5 stars
| Loose ID
He could work out a resting heart rate from this, listening to the strong thumps, quickly glancing down at his watch. Decent. Resting below sixty. Brody was fit. A lot more fit than he gave himself credit for. The muscles in his chest were defined, and that didn’t come from police work. He had to work out regularly.
The meat of Zack’s hand rested on his broad chest, fingers moving on the swell of his pectorals as they rose and fell with each breath. The stir in his shorts brought him back front and center to the fact that this wasn’t the best idea. Leaning over his very attractive and touch-phobic patient. Even if all he intended to do was see if the man could lighten up. Maybe even laugh.
He wasn’t laughing now. When Zack lifted his eyes to Brody’s, he was hit with the full intensity of stormy gray. Not filled with amusement anymore but with something else.
It sent heat down Zack’s spine and into his shoes. He wasn’t even listening to the beats, just frozen in place with the buds in his ears, fingers still pressed to Brody’s chest as they stared at each other. The humor of the moment fell away as Brody continued to stare, arms still folded behind his head, mouth set into a straight line.
Zack straightened a tad too sharply and tucked the scope around his neck. Pulling his face into a rehearsed, easy smile, he hid the heat thrumming in his veins. “Yeah. You’ll live.” He started backing toward the door and gave a lame salute that made him want to cringe. God he was such a spaz. “I…I’ll see you next week.”
He rushed to exit stage left, narrowly missing the doorframe on the way out.
Zack could be downright pushy when he went into healthcare-professional mode. Brody wasn’t used to being told what to do. The small voice inside him that rejoiced in response was the one he hated most. He clenched his eyes shut and relaxed his leg.
“Good,” Zack said, his voice low as he focused.
He scooted himself up, knelt down, and hooked Brody’s knee over his arm, placing one hand at the back of his thigh, the other on the front. Brody tensed everywhere. He didn’t mean to, he probably shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help it.
“Relax. Hey,” Zack said and didn’t say another word until Brody opened his eyes and met Zack’s gaze. “Relax. The cramp comes right back if you’re tense. Trust me.”
Brody nodded again because it was all he could manage. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Zack. Oddly enough, he did. But he didn’t trust himself. He didn’t like being in someone else’s hands—yet he did. He wasn’t comfortable with the vulnerability, but he was. And the position he was in was more than a tad suggestive. Except, of course, to someone like Zack. Zack, who only saw physiology, muscles, and ice packs. Cramps instead of sexual tension. Charlie horses instead of thighs.
“Good,” Zack repeated as Brody relaxed.
Brody focused on the trees to his left and tried not to think about the man between his legs or the hands all over him. It made him wonder about the next time he could get out of town.
“Is this helping?” Zack asked.
“Huh? Oh…yeah. Thanks,” Brody answered without looking at him.
Zack didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. Didn’t seem to breathe.
Brody knew it was his way of making Brody either talk or look at him or pay attention. Drove him fucking nuts, but it worked. Brody turned his head to glare at Zack like a pissed-off delinquent, but when his eyes found Zack, Zack wasn’t looking back.
Zack’s gaze was somewhere below Brody’s waist, dragging along one thigh, then the other. His attention lingered there, and Brody felt it all the way through his skin. It wasn’t professional Zack checking out his alignment either. Far from.
Something different, something hungry flashed in the deep brown of Zack’s eyes. Brody felt a lick of pure heat drag up his spine and back down. Straight to his groin. He didn’t know what he did to make Zack meet his eyes. He didn’t flinch or gasp or do anything besides remain frozen in place. Still, Zack looked at him, his eyes weaving a tale that had nothing to do with physical therapy.
Grasping fingers, slick skin, entwined bodies, and the kind of intensity that hurt so good you’d want it again and again. It sparked between them and hung in the air, thicker than the midsummer humidity. Brody recognized the same lust that continued to torture him right there in Zack’s eyes.
Sam B. Morgan is giving away a tour grand prize of a $25 gift card to Amazon.
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